Hamilton: Keeping title lead will be difficult

Lewis Hamilton has admitted he will struggle to hang onto his new lead in the 2018 world championship. His first win of the season in Baku puts him 4 points ahead of Sebastian Vettel, but Hamilton admits that it is the Ferrari with the fastest car.

"Leading the championship is great, but if we continue as we are, it will take a lot of lucky races to keep me here," the Mercedes driver is quoted by Marca. "And you can't expect that for the next 17 races," Hamilton added.

The Briton said the biggest problem with the 2018 car is the tyres, but admitted that he also needs to improve on a personal level: "The car has the pace but we are not unlocking it. We need performance and I need a rhythm and they're not in perfect harmony," he explained.

As for Ferrari, Hamilton admitted: "Their pure pace is much better than ours at the moment. By no means do we have a bad car, but we need to improve it to make it easier to drive. I felt really good in Australia but it hasn't worked out since then and I'm not sure why."

Liberty Media's sporting boss Ross Brawn agrees with Hamilton that Ferrari is ahead of Mercedes after four races: "It is the first time since the beginning of the hybrid era that Mercedes is not technically superior to its opponents," he is quoted by Globo.